Our brain is really smart. In fact, it is the smartest organ in our body. Jokes aside, but out brain is definitely messing with us from time to time. Here are five ways in which our brain shows is just too smart for us.
Change blindness
This is a common phenomenon. It happens when a change in the visual environment occurs, and goes completely unnoticed by the observer. You might think you can see changes and things around you. But science and studies show that we may not be entirely aware of everything that is happening around us.
The reasoning is simple. There are just too many things happening around us, and our brain cannot process all of the information. Instead, our brain chooses to prioritize things.
Many experiments have proven this phenomenon. One involves a conversation between two people, and an assistant standing behind a counter. After a few moments, the assistant bends down, a new assistant comes up, and some of the people talking do not notice the change.
False memories
How many times has this happened to you? The main principle here is that we trust only our own memory. False memories are actually memories in which you remember a certain event, but you remember only things you think happened. In other words, certain event might be different from how we remember, and how it actually happened.
When presented with a photograph of yourself, you might recall where were you, and what happened. But you do so only using the memories of your own. Everything might not have transpired the way you thought it did.
Rubber hand illusion
This is another phenomenon that can be easily proved with an experiment. The trick is that a person thinks and feels like a rubber hand is his own. Yes, it sounds strange. But try the test on your friends, and you will be amazed by the genius trick.
A person has to place his own hand on a table. After that, a rubber hand is positioned next to the person’s real hand. In between the fake and real hand, there should be something to block the real hand from the person’s eyesight. For example, you can use a piece of cardboard. Get a paintbrush, and stroke both the rubber and real hand simultaneously. After a few minutes, the person will get a sense of ownership over the rubber-hand. At this point, get a hammer, and try to hit the rubber hand with it. You will notice the fear of danger in your friend’s eyes.
Phantom vibrations
We live in the era of smartphones. And it is only logical that such era will bring a syndrome closely related with cell phones. This modern-day phenomenon affects many of us, and nine out of ten people have at least once experienced it.
Known as the phantom vibrations syndrome, it is a situation in which you get a sensation of feeling your phone vibrates in your pocket. You check the phone, and your phone never vibrated. According to psychologists, this happens because cell phones have become an “extension of ourselves”. The anxiety over technology causes us to hallucinate and imagine things that are not happening with our phones.
Source amnesia
Similar to the false memories syndrome, this one plays mind games with our memory. For example, you know that London is the capital city of England. But can you remember where and when did you first time hear this information?
The source amnesia phenomenon is one when you remember something, but you forget the source of it. You do not remember where the information originated from. In some cases, people have a tough time where they learned something, and they start thinking that they are actually the source of information.
In some extreme cases, people start singing a song they hear on the radio, and think they created a new song.
